LONDON, UK: Spitfire Audio is proud to announce availability of SOUND DUST 2 — the second collection of unique, strange, and inspiring instruments created by the company’s collective favourite British sound designer, composer, and aficionado of all things (that sound) weird and wonderful, Pendle Poucher, the innovative brains behind boutique Brighton-based library company Sound Dust (to which the collection obviously owes its magical ‘musical’ name) — as of November 15…

​Like its predecessor — originally released by Spitfire Audio as DUSTBUNDLE back in 2015, SOUND DUST 2 acts as another gateway to a playground of sonic discovery — this time to a diverse selection of five of its innovative creator’s namesake company’s most recent hybrid creations.

Collecting unique oddities and eccentricities, richly sampled with Pendle Poucher’s radical recording processes and obsessive attention to detail, these range from hip-hop beats through to broken violas and rare, distorted pianos — all as they have never been heard before. Better still, these are truly expressive, intuitive left-field sounds, supremely designed to spark anyone’s imagination. Indeed, as Pendle Poucher posits, “My approach is not as a proper composer; I make organised noise. For me, the sounds are more important than the notes. I’m always thinking about the timbre and the quality of the sound, then I try to make that into a musical thing.”​

But for Sound Dust, Pendle Poucher mostly works alone as he prefers to see a project through from start to finish, with laser-sharp attention to detail: “The whole Sound Dust thing started by accident,” he reveals. “I bought a beautiful old Dulcitone off eBay; it was kind of knackered and I couldn’t really play it, so I decided to sample it. I then started selling the samples, which, to my surprise, were amazingly popular, and it all grew from there. Had I not started withDulcitone, Sound Dust wouldn’t be what it is today, which is essentially me indulging in my desire to make funny noises.” ​

​Needless to say, a clandestine, Cold War-style meet between composers Christian Henson and Pendle Poucher beneath London's Hungerford Bridge, resulted in one of the most exciting partnerships Spitfire Audio has forged in its illustrious history...

History has shown, then, that the original DUSTBUNDLE — recently re-released as SOUND DUST 1 — has become a staple of Spitfire Audio’s 70-plus sample libraries to date. SOUND DUST 2 is surely set to follow suit, thanks to its integration of the following five hybrid creations — each effectively ‘mini’ magical, sample-based virtual instruments in their own right, fit for sprinkling over anything anyone cares to play with them. ​

The FLUTTER dust module could conceivably be considered a truly 21st Century Mellotron, made using existing Sound Dust instruments with added effects and parameters. It is based on recordings of acoustic instruments — just like a Mellotron, albeit with extra functionality to transport its users to places its tape-based Mellotron counterpart’s could only over dream of! Furthering flexibility, FLUTTER dust module features two interfaces — namely, Looper, offering controls on a per-note basis, and Wavetable, with edited, mangled, morphed, and reversed sounds from Sound Dust favourites (such as Autoharp, Cloud Viola and Cello, Dulcitone, Ghosts Piano, Hammr+ and Rubber Bass, Hogwarts Piano, Orgone, Pendleonium, Plucked Grand Piano, and Ships Piano) providing long and complex, multi-sampled acoustic wavetables that can scan in real time to create beautiful, evolving, and unexpected new sounds.

Meanwhile, moving the mod wheel results in instant, live fluttering/glitch/jitter effects; playing the coloured key switches produces realtime gating effects. Either way, clicking the chaos button simply serves up a totally different sound each and every time! That said, moving the playhead position or loop points can construct completely new sounds — from delicate ‘flute-otrons’ to majestic organ-celestes and complex polyrhythmic Philip Glass-esque soundscapes. Seeking to make music that inhabits a sonic ‘other’ space by sounding simultaneously acoustic and electronic? Enter the wonderful world of FLUTTER, a world where creating granular sounds and ghostly versions of real-world timbres clearly comes naturally.

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​Taking its name, naturally, from the time funnel in Kurt Vonnegut’s terrific time-leaping novel, Sirens of Titan, INFUNDIBULUM is a multi-arp workstation and three-part sequencing machine offering a playground of polyrhythmic possibilities — perfect for creating unusual textures, rhythmic textures like ostinatos and interesting cross-rhythms, and different types of sequencing. Since those three arpeggiators all run at different speeds and lengths, featuring chiming piano sounds for an instant Steve Reich vibe, the radical results can be likened to being in a room full of noise generators; bowed, plucked, or struck things; and exotic vintage synths! INFUNDIBULUM is not intended for authentically replicating any of the included sounds — some have been deeply multi-sampled, after all; instead it celebrates what happens when sampling goes too far! Furthermore, holding any chord results in different notes starting to cycle back on themselves in disjointed yet glorious, hitherto unheard ways. With the an amazing multi-arp added into the magical mix — three sounds repeating through different cycle lengths at different speeds, users are already heading halfway towards an out-of-body experience!

Elsewhere, ODDHOP — powered by modular chaos engine #3, no less; imagine, if you will, a 303 and a 909 drum machine fused together with additional quirky percussion machines — makes for disappearing down a rhythmic rabbit hole easier done than said! Since it is packed with hundreds of original acoustic and electronic sounds arranged into five octaves of one-shot kicks, as well as pre-programmed basses, pianos, and vocal samples, ODDHOP is specifically designed for electronic music production and, as such, compatible with Pendle Poucher’s other piano-based instruments for a wonky, eclectic hip-hop sound. Saying that, things get really exciting when using the new drum and bass sequencing engines, each with 12 tracks of drawable-per-note control over nine parameters and polyrhythmic patterns. Put it this way: users will literally never be sure what they are going to get!

Get this, though: PENDLEONIUM comprises six sampled source instruments, intended to create something entirely new. The instruments themselves — two Danelectro baritone guitars, two Fernandez infinite guitars (with Sustainiac pickups and built-in eBows), and a spring viola (hardwired through a Roland Space Echo, creating an endless pad) — are arranged left to right across the main panel. PENDLEONIUM creates sounds reminiscent of Twin Peaks, Radiohead, and an orchestral haze, seamlessly merging organic and electronic elements. Each instrument comes complete with enhanced editing tools to tweak to suit, with effects like dirt, eq, rotor, and reverb, together with delay send and reverb send, for gnarly, lo-fi treatments. PENDLEONIUM produces seismic shifts and deep, rich tones at lower registers, while in higher registers it can be configured to produce sounds like ripples passing through mercury!

SHIPS PIANO is fashioned from a selection of three characterful pianos — namely, a ship’s piano; a ‘school hall’ grand, recorded binaurally in a Hogwarts-style school chapel; and a deviously altered home upright, reversed, fed into high-end reverb, and reversed again for a backwards attack effect. Speaking of effects, users can cunningly combine different aspects of each piano — accessing ADSRs, convolution reverb, high and lowpass filters, and vibrato to create impossible-sounding piano hybrids!

Having said all that, so intuitive is this collection of instruments that as soon as users start moving buttons and faders around, magical things start to happen! Is it any wonder, when Pendle Poucher — Spitfire Audio co-founder Christian Henson’s sampling hero — delights in taking left-field routes, resulting in inspiring new sounds and mind-bending sound design possibilities.

​VOGTLAND, GERMANY: electronic sound tools creator VERMONA is proud to announce availability of fourMative CONTOURS — its first ‘envelope’ entry to the ever-expanding Eurorack small-format modular system world without resorting to type, far exceeding the functionality of a traditional envelope generator and typically following the company’s naming scheme for its Eurorack modules to reflect the fact that it delivers up to four single-phase envelopes that can be combined to achieve much more complex voltage-controlled curves — as of November 9…

​VERMONA makes no secret of its admiration for the classic ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) envelope generator; indeed, it is well versed in its strengths, having implemented various versions into its desktop devices over the years. Yet the company collectively decided that its first Eurorack-compatible envelope generator should not resort to type, instead rising to the challenge of realising a unique and flexible concept without compromises being made. ​

​Mission accomplished? Actually, the prototype presented its erstwhile ecstatic creators with an unforeseen headache: how to name a module which was planned as an envelope generator but ended up exceeding expectations by so far? Fortunately for VERMONA, various proposals were supportively submitted to Twitter in response to a small survey. Settling upon fourMative CONTOURS, the company collectively felt that this does not pin down the module’s function to being that of just another envelope generator, but rather reflected its purpose while typically following VERMONA’s Eurorack module naming scheme.

So what warranted the fourMative CONTOURS name, and what, exactly, does this module do differently? First and foremost, fourMative CONTOURS delivers up to four single-phase envelopes that can be combined to achieve much more complex voltage- controlled curves.

​Therefore, the module itself features four individual channels (or units in ‘VERMONA-speak’), numbered accordingly on its front facia. Flexibly, each unit can be switched into A (attack), D (decay), or H (hold) MODE — with the attack and decay phases switchable between operating with a LIN (linear) or EXP (exponential) response SHAPE — and can be used individually or in any combination. Those tasty features alone are enough to set fourMative CONTOURS apart from the Eurorack envelope generator pack, putting it in prime position for handling many modulation tasks.

The envelopes themselves are seriously snappy; each unit can run within a TIME range of 0.5 milliseconds through to 30 seconds, switchable between perfectly balanced fast and SLOW speed settings to ensure smooth adjustments, with the former geared towards creating crisp and percussive sounds. Saying that, that’s only half the story here, however, since those fourMative CONTOURS units are each equipped with a CV IN (control voltage input) that not only allows the times to be modulated but also extends them in both directions — down to 25 μs and up to 10,000 seconds, so if a two-hour-long envelope is needed then fourMative CONTOURS can handle it!

Individual units can be looped or combined with other units using simple internal patching connections to create more complex envelopes. Thanks to those extended frequency ranges, fourMative CONTOURS can creatively also function as an LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) or even an audio oscillator.

On the face of it, fourMative CONTOURS clearly goes far beyond the capabilities of standard envelope generators, and anyone looking for a versatile modulation source should surely consider giving it a try. The creators themselves are quietly confident that there are many more scenarios where fourMative CONTOURS can be pressed into play, filling in some equally exotic Eurorack small- format modular system blanks, so-to-speak — not just the 24HP/3U rack space the module itself obviously occupies!

Shipping now, fourMative CONTOURS is available to purchase through VERMONA’s growing global network of dealers (http://www.vermona.com/en/dealer/) with an RRP of €399.00 EUR (Europe) and $489.00 USD (USA).

For a limited time, 175 products are 50% off including therecently released TRAKTOR PRO 3 and KONTAKT 6.

Berlin, November 14, 2018Native Instruments today launched their Thanksgiving sales special for 2018. From November 14 until December 2, 175 Native Instruments products are available at 50% off their original price. This offer is a great opportunity for producers to save on recent releases TRAKTOR PRO 3 and KONTAKT 6, best-sellers such as SESSION GUITARIST: ELECTRIC SUNBURST, or premium instruments such as the SYMPHONY SERIES COLLECTION.​

​The SYMPHONY SERIES COLLECTION offers exquisite strings, percussion, brass, and woodwind, with an inspiring workflow and a bespoke minimalist interface. The wide range of Expansions is also included in the offer. Each expansion provides the sound of a specific genre or style, with new kits, loops and samples, beat patterns and track templates, plus new presets for MASSIVE, MONARK, and other synthesizers.

Also on offer, the DISCOVERY SERIES COLLECTION – five detailed instruments that capture musical styles and traditions from around the world. These inspiring instruments are ideal for scores and soundtrack work, but equally useful in contemporary productions. The offer also includes NI’s powerful effects and production tools, including new favorites CRUSH PACK and MOD PACK. CRUSH PACK takes distortion to a new level of control and precision, while MOD PACK brings classics plug-in effects like chorus, phaser and flanger, and updates them for a new generation.

Full terms and conditions

This special offer is valid from November 14 to December 2, 2018. The special offer is valid only on the products listed on the promotion webpage. It is not valid on KOMPLETE 12, KOMPLETE 12 SELECT, KOMPLETE 12 ULTIMATE, KOMPLETE 12 ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION, MALLET FLUX, hardware, iOS apps, accessories, or NI merchandise. All offers apply to the NI Online Shop only. Note that according to our terms and conditions, e-vouchers cannot be used in conjunction with special offers.​Additional information on this offer is available at:https://www.native-instruments.com/products/thanksgiving-2018

MALLET FLUX features an innovative sequencer and playing engine that helps generate ideas fast, turning the simplest drafts into evocative arrangements for soundtracks, scores, and more.

MALLET FLUX helps composers, producers, and other musicians start creating right away. Users can begin with 270 predesigned arpeggios, sequences, and single hits in multi-instrument arrangements. These presets can be fully modified to produce completely new patterns. Users can also take advantage of innovative Flux Engine pattern automation to create complex rhythmic phrases and arrangements by playing simple chords.​

MALLET FLUX draws from pristine recordings of mallet percussion instruments, captured in a high-quality studio by the sampling experts at SONUSCORE. This award-winning team has worked on more than 2,000 projects in the videogame, TV, and film industry.

MIDNIGHT SUNSET turns back the clock to the close of the ‘70s and the dawn of ‘80s, when new drum machines and synthesizers began appearing in studios. Disco, R&B, and soul had ruled the dancefloors of the last decade. Now musicians were embracing new technology, mixing live instrumentation with drum machines and analog synths to create an irresistible blend of warm textures and cool rhythms.

MIDNIGHT SUNSET melts down a sound made famous by SOLAR Records, (Dynasty, The Whispers) as well as artists like Prince and Rick James – a sound that influenced music well beyond the decade and later into ‘90s West Coast hip hop. MIDNIGHT SUNSET contains original recordings of horns, guitars, bass, and more, coming as one shots and loops for any DAW, and Sample Instruments for MASCHINE. The sound of iconic drum machines from the period can be found in kits for BATTERY and MASCHINE – perfect for building slapping early-’80s rhythms. Analog-inspired synth presets for MASSIVE, MONARK, and REAKTOR PRISM let producers dial in distinctive, vintage tones suitable for any style of music.​

MIDNIGHT SUNSET joins a range of over 50 Expansions. Based on the acclaimed MASCHINE Expansions series, these genre-focused sound packs contain everything a musician needs to create a full track in a specific style, and can be used in any DAW. For everything on Expansions, head to​https://www.native-instruments.com/expansions.

The fun doesn’t stop there for Expansions. There’s a lot more where that came from. Explore a wide range of genre-specific presets, drum kits, one-shots, samples, and loops – perfect for using with your keyboard, MASCHINE, and favorite DAW.

SEATTLE, WA (November 8th, 2018) – Tracktion Corporation is delighted to introduce the Retromod Series, a growing collection of synth plugins that redefines iconic hardware synthesizers and pushes them into the future.

​The Tracktion team has meticulously sampled dozens of legendary synthesizers, added to them, given them cool, contemporary twists and made them capable of so much more than the originals.The Retromods Series faithfully captures the sound, style and allure of yesterday’s original hardware, then uses modern technology to offer extraordinary performance upgrades.​

​The sound samples have been combined in creative, unusual and unexpected ways and pushed in different directions. The resulting sample collection is not just authentic recreations, it is a compendium of sounds that were simply unachievable from the source hardware.​

The recently released LOFREQ-C includes samples from eleven famous synthesizers from 1974 to 1995, namely the Oberheim SEM, Yamaha CS-30, Arp Odyssey, Korg MS-20, Realistic MG-1, Novation Bass Station R, Doepfer MS-404 and the Roland SH-2, TB-303, SH-101 and CMU-810.

​They join LEAD, featuring samples from six renowned Clavia instruments, 106 based on three classic Juno instruments, and FAT featuring most of the landmark Moog synthesizers.

The interesting and exciting grouping of instruments in the Retromod Series gives musicians a huge choice of samples from across the last forty years of electronic music. The similar framework of each plugin, offers rapid access, ease of use and quick results, even when transferring from one to another. Simpler to use than the original hardware instruments and lots of fun, the Retromod series is an affordable way to add a whole array of classic instruments sources to any sound library.

​TALLMAN, NY, USA: having recently made (sound) waves with its passive CLA-10TM effectively bringing ‘back’ to market an iconic studio reference monitoring mainstay, affordable high-quality audio products producer Avantone Pro is proud to announce availability of its complimentary CLA-200 Studio Reference Amplifier — a classically-designed Class A/B amplifier (also developed in close collaboration with GRAMMY® Award-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge, to whom it not only owes its ‘initials’ but also its very existence) — as of October 30…

Avantone Pro’s CLA-200 Studio Reference Amplifier is a dynamic, high-output, high-resolution, full-range system built the old school way.​

Working with GRAMMY® Award-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge — whose signature is boldly blazoned across the CLA-200 Studio Reference Amplifier’s no-nonsense front panel, particular care was taken to create an amplifier in the traditional studio style, with generous VU meters, high-quality Japanese components, and a serious toroidal transformer linear power supply. ​

​Seriously housed in a standard 2U rack-mount chassis, the amplifier itself can generate over 200 watts per channel into an 8 ohm load — under testing it delivered a powerful 208 watts into 8 ohms, actually, and can run at one third power without thermal fault, making it a perfect fit for medium to large speakers in serious studios.

Still better, because it is convection cooled, it can be used in the same room as the monitors themselves. The CLA-200 Studio Reference Amplifier is designed to be used in a studio environment requiring high-power output with no fan noise, in other words.

In the case of the CLA-200 Studio Reference Amplifier, specifications only tell part of the story. So who better to pick up the thread, then, than the talented individual to whom it owes its very existence? Ears are always wide open, it seems. Says Chris Lord-Alge: “I have mixed 20,000 songs on my classic studio monitors and they have become my companions and part of what I do! They are truly the sound of hits! Every good pair of monitors needs a powerhouse of an amplifier to give you clear results. So now, thanks to Avantone Pro and the ears of CLA, we’re making available for the first time the return of a classically-designed amplifier for your studio. No longer do you need to take a chance on something used, old, and unreliable — the CLA-200 is here!”

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Here it is, indeed — designed to be paired with CLA-10TM classic studio reference monitors, yet works equally well with just about any passive studio monitor requiring serious dynamic range. Really low distortion, steady performance under harsh conditions, and an open and transparent sound make the CLA-200 Studio Reference Amplifier an obvious choice for discerning studios... just ask Chris Lord-Alge. And he should surely know, having applied his Midas (mixing) touch to just about anyone who’s anyone!

LONDON, UK: Spitfire Audio is proud to announce availability of ERIC WHITACRE CHOIR — capturing the breathtaking range of that most personal of musical instruments, the human voice, joyfully crafted and conducted from within the luxurious Lyndhurst Hall at London’s legendary AIR Studios by namesake GRAMMY® Award-winning American composer, conductor, and speaker Eric Whitacre (famed for his so-called ‘Virtual Choir’ projects bringing individual voices from around the globe together into an online choir, as well as his choral, orchestral, and wind ensemble music), ultimately showcasing his 22-singer-strong The Eric Whitacre Singers as Spitfire Audio’s arguably most anticipated virtual instrument library release to date — as of October 25…

​ERIC WHITACRE CHOIR really represents one of Spitfire Audio’s largest library undertakings to date, taking the sound-specialising British music technology company’s decade’s worth of sampling experience and applying an authentic approach, affording music-makers a creatively-inspiring choral library that uses voices just like any other section of its orchestral libraries like no other.

Famed for its exceptional acoustics, stunning architectural features, and natural light, as well as accommodating a full symphony orchestra with choir simultaneously as one of the largest recording rooms in the world, one of the world’s most experienced sampling teams returned — with Eric Whitacre and his 22-singer-strong The Eric Whitacre Singers in tow — to London’s legendary AIR Studios' luxurious Lyndhurst Hall to record the large library in question. “It was magical,” marvels the man himself, before adding: “It must be my favourite recording room in the world. There’s something about the atmosphere in there; it’s absolutely perfect for voices. It’s got just the right amount of bloom, and the spiritual uplift of its original intention as a church.” Charged with capturing this — via an ‘ear-watering’ selection of sought-after microphones, pristine preamps, and legendary tape machines — was recording and mix engineer extraordinaire (and Spitfire Audio regular), Jake Jackson, justly ensuring that the resulting stunning-sounding ERIC WHITACRE CHOIR shares the same acoustic DNA of Spitfire Audio’s acclaimed orchestral catalogue, so works well with any of those libraries. ​

Lest anyone needs nudging in its general direction, Spitfire Audio is also renowned for its innovative Evo Grid technology. Simple in principal, inspiring in practice, the grid — itself inspired by the breakthrough British EMS VCS3, which made musical history upon its introduction in 1969 by being the first commercially portable synthesiser available anywhere in the world, thanks to its innovative modular matrix-based patchboard dispensing with the telephone exchange-like cabling of other (much larger) modular systems in favour of making space-saving connections with (removable) coloured pegs — takes samples that change in different ways over time and arranges them across the keyboard. Play a simple gesture or chord and it will weave a ‘micro-composition’ that never stands still. Simply speaking, users of ERIC WHITACRE CHOIR can construct their own Evo — ‘Spitfire-speak’ for evolution — by placing an ‘EMS-esque’ (virtual) peg in the relevant hole on the aptly-named Eric Whitacre Choir Evo Grid screen or hitting the randomise button to generate automatically a unique instrument from an almost infinite array of possibilities! Always original, and always musical.

Evidently ERIC WHITACRE CHOIR doesn’t disappoint in that regard; in addition to a full set of orchestral samples — the Choir section of which includes six soprano, five alto, and six bass singers totalling 170 techniques, Spitfire Audio also recorded another stunning-sounding Evo Grid, with each element — 111 evolutions, no less — sculpted by Eric Whitacre. Where the choir meets that Evo Grid technology, a new instrument is born, one that so impressed Eric Whitacre that his was musically moved to comment: “Frankly, I wish I could compose like this in everyday life. The idea is that you can take up to three or four of these evolutions and combine them, or cycle through them as one of them evolves, and suddenly you’re painting music a totally different way, sculpting sound in real time. You can create minutes of profoundly beautiful music in this way.” ​

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While clearly converted to the joy of working with his namesake Eric Whitacre Choir Evo Grid, when Christian Henson and Paul Thomson — fellow founders of Spitfire Audio — approached Eric Whitacre with the idea of sampling his choir, he took time to consider the project before eventually realising that this was the perfect vehicle with which to free composers from preconceptions about the voice and how it can be used in music. According to Eric Whitacre, “The palette of sounds is much broader than many people think when it comes to just using voices — from delicate whispers to gritty sounds at the back of the throat, to shimmering clouds of overtones.”

​Once onboard the good ship Spitfire Audio, Eric Whitacre set sail towards finding himself at home with the microscopic detail of sampling. Indeed, it reflects his approach to composition, with which he crafts every sinew of sound to have its own musical life and integrity, or, as he puts it, “... hyper-musicality.” Many weeks of recording saw him conducting his choir for every thread of music destined to be housed in the ERIC WHITACRE CHOIR library, conjuring up sounds that range from familiar vocal techniques — including vowels and open vocalisations whose harmonic content transforms with changes in mouth shape — through to more unusual articulations, including shorts and rhythmic passages.

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​Pressing into play the welcomed assistance and advanced skillset of design and user-experience agency ustwo — responsible for DICE, the world’s fastest- growing live music discovery app, and MONUMENT VALLEY, a surreal exploration through fantastical architecture and impossible geometry, ERIC WHITACRE CHOIR creatively delivers as a bespoke, self-contained (AAX-, AU- VST2-, and VST3-compatible) plug-in, developed primarily for composers, by composers. Above and beyond that, though, it is an exceptional library, filling 200GB of audio that transcends choral cliches of sacred, angelic, and apocalyptic as an encyclopaedia of the voice, vying to enrich any composition. Cue a thought-provoking closing commentary from Eric Whitacre: “What I love about writing for voices is that sometimes a simple minor triad is all you need — no need to dress it up. It’s sophisticated because it’s so simple. And it has a gravity to it. It goes deep — at a cellular level.” Like ERIC WHITACRE CHOIR itself, surely?

Paris, 2018/10/22: Blue Cat Audio has released a free update for Blue Cat's PatchWork, its virtual patchbay for plug-ins with built-in effects.

This new version adds drag and drop support to move, duplicate or insert plug-ins anywhere in the plug-ins matrix. It also brings Blue Cat's Axiom's impulse response loader into the built-in EQ plug-in and includes several bug fixes and performance enhancements (full change list below).

The update for V2 users can be downloaded for free from the same location as the original full version (link received by eail upon purchase). For users still on version 1, an upgrade link is available from the same page. For others, a demo version is available on bluecataudio.com as a standalone application and in most plug-in formats for Mac and PC.

What's New in PatchWork V2.3:

​- Drag and drop plug-ins between slots.- Hold the alt key on Mac and Ctrl key on windows to copy (duplicate) a plug-in instead of moving it.- Drop the plug-in before another to insert it in the chain.- Drag and drop plug-ins between several instances of PatchWork or across plug-ins (compatible with the latest preview of Late Replies,MB-7 Mixer and Axiom).

- Drag and drop .dll, .vst, .vst3, or .component files directly from the Finder or Explorer onto plug-in slots.- Drag and drop .plgnfo files (previously saved from the software) directly from the Finder or Explorer onto plug-in slots.- Built-in EQ plug-in can now load and manipulate impulse responses (IR).- Fixed: effect tail not processed anymore when just inserted on a track (avoids using CPU when not necessary).- Fixed: built-in multitap delay plug-in could get out of sync in some host applications.- Improved performance of the built-in EQ plug-in.- Improved performance when saving preset/session with many built-in plug-ins.

LONDON, UK: Spitfire Audio is proudly reintroducing eDNA EARTH — enriching its epic collection of synthesised orchestral sounds created from ten years’ worth of widely-used, wide-ranging organic orchestral live recordings with which it has made its notable name as a British music technology company that specialises in sounds, this time warped or morphed into different textures and amazing state-of-the-art electronic soundscapes, served up via an easy-to-use, ultra-controllable GUI giving access to all areas of new sonic experimentation, enhanced with support for Native Instruments’ NKS (Native Kontrol Standard®) extended plug-in format for all virtual instrument developers (delivering seamless software connection to the German giant’s cutting-edge KOMPLETE KONTROL S-Series keyboards and MASCHINE hardware for intuitive interaction) — as of October 8…

eDNA EARTH is based around a collection of 1,900-plus basic instruments, mangled into over 1,000 custom presets professionally programmed by the talented team at Spitfire Audio during several months. The proprietary eDNA Engine — a sample-synthesiser powerhouse that can combine two sounds and modulate between them with envelopes, filters, and wobbles per sound, as well as a gate sequencer and a selection of go-to effects — driving those hard-won results is, itself, effectively user-driven by a GUI that’s as easy on the eye as it is easy to use, ultimately allowing for a wide range of genres and cinematic settings.​

​Simply select by sound type — Atmos, Bass, Drones and Scapes, Drums and Percussion, FX, Keys, Leads, Pads and Strings, Sequences and Plucks, or Synthetic Orchestra — and play. Put it this way: with such depth of content — from beautifully refined dynamic crossfades to turbo-charged tempo synced, gated, and phased wonders — readily accessible, anyone playing each carefully crafted sound for only 30 seconds would need 15 hours to listen to each and every instrument and patch available! And that’s before tweaking to make more of their own.

​On top of that, the eDNA Engine itself is made up of seven so-called ‘cartridges’ — each curated by a different composer or engineer, each focusing on a distinct sonic style; perfectly positioned presets abound — all arranged by sound type, but users can also browse by cartridge, both from within the eDNA EARTH GUI or directly from Native Instruments’ cutting-edge KOMPLETE KONTROL S-Series keyboards and MASCHINE hardware, thanks to that newly-implemented NKS support... no mouse or trackpads (necessarily) needed!

As an evidently elated Christian Henson himself says: “So we’ve updated eDNA; the sounds are a lot easier to browse, it’s now NKS-compatible, and I’m actually working on a new cartridge at the moment, which I’m quite excited about — always a joy to work withEARTH!”

​Working with the enriched encyclopaedia of cinematic synth sounds that is eDNA EARTH is, indeed, a joyful and musically-enthralling experience, one which benefits from fellow Spitfire Audio co-founder Paul Thomson’s thoughtful consideration as to why, exactly, content that is organic at origin yet sounds synthetic mixes better with live or orchestral elements: “It’s about having depth in the sound, as opposed to a slightly two-dimensional sound. Even though you can get a synth sound that appears to have a depth in the soundstage, there’s something about a sound that’s recorded in a space that has a kind of spacial depth.

When Quincy Jones worked on Michael Jackson’s albums, a lot of the synths were played out into the room and then re-amped, basically, in order to get a kind of sonic depth to the sound. So I think that what we’ve done — by starting with a sound that was recorded in a 3D space and then kind of imposing synthetic texture on to it — is retain that depth within the sound.”​Wise words there from a sound musical mind. Musically, then, eDNA EARTH has been created with film, TV, and games music in mind, offering endless inspiration to the next generation of media composers, whether wishing to go ‘off world’ — following in the bold footsteps of Greek genius Vangelis, whose inspirational futuristic fusion characterised the timeless score to visionary director Ridley Scott’s 1982 neo-noir science fiction film classic Bladerunner, which, in Christian Henson’s equally wise words, “...was synthetic but approached from an orchestral arrangement POV...” — or keeping their musical feet firmly planted here on earth! Either way, eDNA EARTH should also appeal to dance and pop producers wanting to add cutting-edge, cinematic electronic textures to their music — made even easier by Spitfire Audio coming back to (eDNA) EARTH with an enriched encyclopaedia of cinematic synth sounds!

MISTER FOCUS is a collection of affordable 500 series processors that can be customized using modular analog plugins (Colour modules) to create console-like channels aimed at no-fuss analog results during tracking and mixing. It’s available as a console channel (STAGE II), compressor (COMP), equalizer (EQ), and an a la carte version that can be user-configured (RGB) to create your dream channel for your unique needs.​

​STAGE II – A colorful console channel to pair with your existing mic preamps to add organic analog mojo. Available in three different tonal flavors: British (powered by Royal Blue module), American (powered by Mass Drivr module), and Tube (powered by Pentode) amplifier stages. Our single-knob FOCUS EQ can be placed before or after this stage for effortless tone shaping pre or post saturation. The signal lastly passes through a versatile FILTER and multi-stage saturation section, powered by the Super Filter module, which can be toggled on or off.

​COMP – A two-knob compressor with character. The compression is classic 1176 FET limiting powered by our Implode module. Our single-knob FOCUS EQ can be placed before or after this stage for effortless tone shaping pre or post compression. The signal lastly passes through the MEGA stage powered by the Mass Drivr module. This features a discrete 2520 style op amp driving a beefy sounding output transformer, which can be toggled on or off.​

EQ – An EQ you won’t overthink. Available in two different functional variants: passive Pultec-style high shelf boost (powered by Rogue-Tec Air), or FET saturating EQ (powered by FET Filter). Our single-knob FOCUS EQ can be placed before or after this stage for effortless tone shaping pre or post saturation. The final signal passes through the SHEEN stage powered by the Royal Blue module. This features classic British transistor amplifiers driving a rich sounding output transformer. An optional treble presence boost can be enabled via jumper, and the entire SHEEN stage can be toggled on or off.

RGB – a customizable platform for building your dream channel using analog plugins (Colour modules). The first slot has separate controls for Colour drive and wet/dry mix. Configure vintage-flavored line amps, compressors, EQs, or saturators. At the end of the signal chain a second analog plugin slot, TWO-TONE, allows you to add another shade of coloration for a layered analog patina. Add filters, HF boosts, or transformer-coupled output stages, all at the press of a button.

MISTER FOCUS Features At A Glance

Line level

Two Analog Plugin slots

Slot 1 Drive: -6 to +18 dB with constant gain

Slot 1 Mix: blends dry and processed signal

Slot 2: on/off

Focus EQ

Single knob EQ to balance bass and treble – Chop Shop heritage

Internal jumpers to shift pivot frequency

PRE switch moves Focus pre-Slot 1

All circuit components were chosen by ear for maximum MOJO

MISTER FOCUS In DetailMister Focus features three blocks of high-end analog processing. All four versions in the collection feature the same basic architecture and layout. STAGE II, COMP, and EQ are pre-configured with our favorite combinations of analog plugins. With RGB you configure the COLOUR and TWO-TONE blocks to build a custom signal path for your unique needs. The third block is our powerful single knob FOCUS EQ.

CONFIGURE WITH ANALOG PLUGIN MODULES

While STAGE II, COMP, and EQ are set up with our favorite configurations, MISTER FOCUS – RGB is offered specifically as a blank canvas that allows you to configure its functionality and customize its sonic signature by installing analog plugins called Colour modules. A wide variety of fully assembled analog plugins affordably priced from $79 - $129 are available and are easily installed in the two Colour Module slots on MISTER FOCUS’s printed circuit board – no tools required. Just insert your favorite Colour Module into the slots, adjust the drive (C-DRV), and blend (C-MIX) the processing with the dry signal to taste. With EQ modules installed in MISTER FOCUS, the C-MIX knob varies the amount of boost and cut depending on the module.

FOCUS EQ

The intuitive single-knob FOCUS EQ from the Chop Shop effortlessly balances the bass and treble energy of the sound. Apparent loudness is maintained constant for meaningful A/B comparisons. Internal SHIFT jumpers decrease turnover frequency for a different midrange response. The PRE switch allows FOCUS to be placed before or after the primary Colour slot for the most sonic flexibility.Louder Than Liftoff offers the following analog plugins for MISTER FOCUS:

​If you are looking for the perfect instrument for film scoring, pop music, songwriting, classical or modern avant-garde violin compositions, the Emotional Violin is your first choice! A unique, virtual instrument that convinces through its variety of articulations, its direct and unadulterated sound and unusual playing techniques, including rebowing. With its impressive and at the same time emotional sound, it enables expressions that have never been achieved before.

Emotional Violin has been recorded throughout in a musical context to capture the expressiveness and natural bowing of real instrumentalists. The intelligent scripting enables more than 50 different playing styles and True Legato, making this library extremely versatile. In addition to the usual playing styles and articulations.​

Emotional Violin also features extraordinary techniques such as:

Paganini Run (Legato)

Morbid Sustain

Riccochet

Flautando

Sulponti

Double Stopped Chords

Contextual Sampling

​Our philosophy during the recordings is called "Contextual Sampling". In order to find the perfect sound, various string instruments were recorded over a period of four years. We came to the conclusion that no technique comes even close to the actual and natural vibrato of a trained musician.

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The sampling of real vibrato of course has some conceptual drawbacks, but these recordings are always more inspiring and organic than adding an artificial vibrato. So our goal was to perfectly capture these musical aspects and combine them into a great sounding and easy to play instrument.

Emotional Violin also offers unusual articulations that you won't find in any other library. Simply select from one of the following:

Normal Sustains with and without Vibrato

Multiple Progressive Vibratos

Multiple Espressivo

Flautando

Sul Ponticello

Morbid Sustains

Harmonics

Multiple Spiccatos

Staccato

Marcato

Tremolo

Tremolo Sul Ponticello

Multiple Trills

Pizzicato

Pizzicato Snap

Paganini Pizzicato

Scratches

Piazolla FX

Diverse Violin Effects

Violin Percussions

This library also features technical refinements such as Rebowing, which allows you to switch between bow strokes using the Keyswitch - extremely useful for long sustains. The Vibrato Crossfade works in a similar way, allowing you to easily fade from non-vibrato to vibrato.

The Recording

​The Emotional Violin was recorded at the Mastermix Studio near Munich in a wood-panelled room with a large ceiling height and the greatest possible distance to the wall. For maximum flexibility, two Neumann KM184 and U87 microphones were deliberately used to record closely. Therefore the room amount is quite subtle and you can use your own effects for further processing. However, you can also use the integrated Convolution Reverb.

Kontakt

Emotional Violin has three True Legato Master Patches, including the "Romantic Violin" and the "Intimate Violin". These contain about 80% of all recorded articulations, which logically overlap. If, for example, you play an opening note that of course has no legato, you will only hear one note with a natural string opening. As soon as you play legato or sustain notes, you will hear a note that originates from the corresponding context of the original recordings.

In addition, the library contains more than 70 articulations, which are grouped into categories and are available as multi-keyswitch patches - everything from simple sustains to dynamic crossfades between four layers is included. So if you don’t want to work with keyswitches, this way of working is perfect for you.​To ensure the highest possible liveliness, many variations contain up to 9 Round Robins.

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Emotional Violin is the second virtual instrument in this series, produced by Harmonic Subtones, the makers of Emotional Cello.

Emotional Violin is available now as box or download product at Best Service and participating key dealers:Best Service, Emotional Violin MSRP € 199$ 199 £ 175

New York City, USA, (October 17th, 2018), With the beginning of the 2018 AES show in New York City, UJAM Instruments, a.o. makers of Virtual Guitarist, are announcing their new Virtual Bassist product line of instrument plug-ins (VST, AU, AAX), with the three titles Royal, Rowdy and Mellow available for pre-order.

Pre-order customers receive a special discount, exclusive making-of insights and access to the product on December 6th, two weeks ahead of public launch.

Similar to the Virtual Guitarist series, each Virtual Bassist is an emulation of a particular instrument, player and gear like amp or effects. The Virtual Bassists can be played like any MIDI instrument, with AI articulation modeling augmenting notes by realistic bass articulations.

​The first three titles in the Virtual Bassist series cover all the essentials for different musical styles:

UJAM Royal - Click to Zoom (new page)

UJAM Rowdy - Click to Zoom (new page)

Royal delivers a broad range of professional studio bass sounds and styles, based on a fingered electric bass and amps selected and configured to fit the bass into any acoustic or electric mix.

​Rowdy is a loud-mouthed, twangy rock bass, leaning towards saturation and distortion with a rather rough sound and playing style.

​Mellow stands for an acoustic double bass that provides bottom end and texture in organic coffee shop jazz just as well as a powerful voice in urban and soul genres.

UJAM Mellow - Click to Zoom (new page)

​Peter Gorges adds: “All three bassists are deep-sampled and come with true-to-style built-in amps and effects. Most importantly for many, they share UJAM’s signature ease-of-use at uncompromised realism that the Virtual Guitarist series has introduced, and play extremely well with UJAM’s other series such as the Virtual Guitarist, Drummer or Beatmaker.”

All three products are available for pre-order starting October 17th, 2018 at a special pre-order price of 99€/$ (129€/$ MSRP), the bundle sells for 199€/$ (387€/$ MSRP) only on www.ujam.com. Virtual Bassist will be officially released on December 17th, 2018.

About The Virtual Bassist SeriesWith Virtual Guitarist being the first and best-selling virtual instrument that brought realistic-sounding rhythm guitar tracks to computer-based musicians worldwide, the core team behind the original Virtual Guitarist re-united to build a new generation of virtual instruments that don’t rest on the success of the past, but continue innovating with vastly increased realism, flexibility and sound quality, thanks to an entirely new technology and content concept. Virtual Bassist is the latest new series in the growing family of Virtual Guitarists, Virtual Drummers and Beatmakers. Learn more at www.ujam.com/bassist/

​e-instruments/ Hamburg, October 17th, 2018 -e-instruments today released Session Keys Electric W – an exquisitely sampled electric piano for Kontakt, based on a genre-defining piano legend.Session Keys Electric W combines authentic sound, flexible operation, and unique controls to make it feel like you’re playing the real thing, producing sounds you wouldn’t imagine were created electronically.

A faithful reproduction of a musical time machine

To replicate this hit-making electric piano, e-instruments turned every stone for a suitable original, which underwent further specialist restoration to bring it painstakingly back to peak condition.It was recorded in two different ways, to create two separate sound sets:

Studio represents the direct unaltered line-out sound, and

​Live, which reproduces the sound of the speakers through an expertly positioned microphone setup.

The faithful recording creates all acoustic noises and resonances together with the pure acoustic sound, giving the user the option to blend acoustic and electric sound.​Surpassing the originalSession Keys Electric W offers much more than a precise image of the original electric piano sound.

The Pentamorph giving the classic instrument complex new sound options. Blend from the pure electric piano to reversed sounds via other complex tones, all with one control.

The Animator commands more than 440 ready-to-play professional licks and phrases in different genres and styles. Phrases follow keys and harmonies while providing complete control over dynamics and complexity using the pitch bend and modulation wheels.

The Smart Chord function to create instant piano chords from single keys or pads.​​

ECHT, THE NETHERLANDS: virtual instrument and effect plug-in developer Rob Papen Inspiration Soundware is proud to announce availability of eXplorer 5— furthering the creative scope of its inspirational plug-in bundle by adding Go2, MasterMagic, and RAW-Kick to the all-encompassing musical mix — as of October 16…​

Now numbering no fewer than 20 highly-versatile virtual instruments and extraordinary effects, eXplorer 5 pushes Rob Papen’s plug-in bundle beyond belief by including three new additions that more than live up to its Inspiration Soundware slogan.​

​MasterMagic is an aptly-named effect plug-in with which to improve mixes or final masters alike. Anyone placing MasterMagic at the very end of their virtual master effects chain can easily experience how much it can help improve their tracks. The MONO/STEREO SPLIT FILTER section will make the low end much tighter while the AIR function — even applied at a liberal level — is sheer magic. Make no mistake: there’s no mystery about this magical musical tool!

​The name maybe gives the game away, as RAW-Kick represents Rob Papen’s cutting-edge kick drum-creation tool! The perfect weapon of choice for those hard-sounding electronic dance music styles — such as Hardcore, Hardstyle (mixing influences from Techno and Hardcore), and Industrial — and also EDM and House. ​Here RAW-Kick creatively enables the use of three layers, each of which can be either modelled or sample-based at source.

Rob Papen being Rob Papen, RAW-Kick has some refreshingly resourceful features with which to create unique-sounding kicks up its virtual sleeve! Still better, RAW-Kick comes complete with a varied selection of original presets from a long list of respected DnB, Hardcore, and Hardstyle producers, including Caine, DJ Mad Dog, DJ Promo, Orphidian, Sinister Souls, Tha Playah, The Outside Agency, and Wavolizer, to name but a notable few.

Finally, Go2 is an appropriately-named, go-to synthesizer, set apart from its award-winning software siblings by virtue of all its controls and features always being in plain sight and always available to access onscreen, so simplifying usage for the average user. Ultimately, though, this is far from being a simple-sounding virtual instrument. Its Morph feature and XY section serve to make for a powerful software synthesizer, one with which users — average or otherwise — can create unique sounds speedily and easily! End game? Go2 surely shows that there is power to be had in the ‘less is more' maxim... and all without sacrificing audio quality!

​But hearing is believing; best put this way, eXplorer 5 is the all-encompassing best that you can get from Rob Papen — all the more so since it also includes PRISMA, easily enabling users to layer multiple Rob Papen virtual instruments into a creatively stacked sound like no other!